Crawling
by mistressofburden
Summary: Only days after the first Dragons fly over London Quinn, Creedy and several others find a young American girl. They spend the next 20 years moving from place to place, desperately seeking a place to call their own. The finally come across a castle
1. Default Chapter

The sky was clear the day before they appeared. It was hard to believe that in a matter of hours the sky would be filled with nothing but smoke, ash and fire.

The London National Airport was busy as ten year old Alice Bradfield, her older brother and their father made their way to the baggage claim. They collected their luggage and made their way outside.

"Daddy, is all of England going to be this busy?" Alice asked.

Her father laughed as he hailed a cab. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see." He said as they piled their luggage into the back and climbed in.

"What I find odd was how empty the plane was, and there were a ton of people waiting for planes to leave."

Alice stared up at her brother. "Cid, please. No more of your wild stories." Their father said.

Alice turned her eyes back to the front of the cab and saw the driver nervously scanning the sky, as if he was expecting it to fall in on them at any minute.

They pulled up in front of the rather large house that they had rented for the summer and climbed out of the cab. They climbed the front stairs and found a note taped to the front of the door. Their father read it before shaking his head and digging into his pocket.

"Good thing she sent me the key." He muttered under his breath as he unlocked the door. They turned back to collect their luggage from the cab and found the car gone and their luggage sitting on the curb. "Odd, I didn't even pay him."

Cid and Alice glanced at each other, now curious about the note their father still had in his hand. They collected their things and walked into the house. Alice noticed that her father had dropped the note and quickly stuffed it into her pocket.

"Alright, go pick out your rooms. Then we'll figure out what to do for supper." Their father said in a voice that was meant to sound cheerful.

They climbed the stairs to the area where the bedrooms were. Alice tossed her bags onto the bed before walking to her brother's room. "Cid," She said softly, pulling the note from her pocket. Cid snatched the paper from her hand and opened it up. "Well, what does it say?"

"If you've still come, may God save you from the Devils beasts."

They heard a glass shatter below them and they ran down to the kitchen. Their father was watching a small TV and his eyes were wide. There was a pile of glass shards and water around his feet.

Cid stepped beside his father and looked at the screen. "My God." He whispered.

Alice pushed her way in front of them and stared at the TV screen. "Once again, this shocking footage was taken just moments ago. It would appear that Paris was been attacked by several Dragons. This footage has not been doctored in anyway."

Alice stared in shock of the now zoomed in picture of the dragons. "What should we do dad?" Cid asked.

"They mentioned a little while ago that there were several shelters being opened that were accessible by underground trains. Maybe we should head to one of those." He said. "I wish your mother was here. She'd know what to do and she'd keep a cool head."

"No, she'd say that there's no such thing as dragons and we'd get stuck here." Cid said. "I think we should go to a shelter, just in case."

"Alright, take Alice upstairs, fill one small bag each with a few changes of clothes and whatever else you think you might need. Then we'll go to a train, there should be one nearby."

Cid grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her upstairs. "What's going on?" Alice asked, not fully understanding what was happening.

"We're going somewhere safe." Cid said, throwing her things into a duffle bag.

"But why?" Alice asked, grabbing her teddy bear and hugging it, seeking some kind of comfort from the familiar object.

"Because we have to." He handed her the duffle bag. "Here is this too heavy for you?"

"It's fine." She said as he pulled her to his room.

When they were ready, he led her downstairs to where their father was waiting, looking at a map of the city. "Okay, there's an underground train station about twelve blocks from here, so it isn't that far away."

Cid grabbed Alice's hand and followed their father out the door. They were shocked to find the street completely deserted and it made them quicken their pace. Alice was looking around with wide eyes, not paying attention to the conversation that was going on between her father and brother.

They were half way to the train station when an explosion behind them made them all jump. Cid stopped and turned back to look at the devastation in the distance. He quickly picked Alice up as the two men began to run in the direction of the station. Alice looked up at the sky and could see several large shapes circling the black smoke.

Cid put Alice back down on the ground when they reached the station and pulled her along behind him. "Cid, come on, there's a train!" Their father yelled and led his children through the crowd.

They pushed their way onto the train, the two men sticking Alice between them. Within minutes the train was moving and Alice could feel her father breathe a sigh of relief.

"Daddy, you said Dragons weren't real." Alice said, glaring up at her father. "You lied."

Her father looked down at her and put a hand on top of her head. "I know sweetie. I guess I was…"

His words were cut off by what sounded like a speeding freight train and the squeal of brakes. Everything became bright, like someone had turned on a light in a dark room. Alice was thrown against Cid, her eye striking his elbow. Her cry of pain was lost among the screams of the other passengers and the screech of metal as the train was knocked on its side.

Before she had a chance to ask what was going on, Alice felt something hit her back. She heard a sickening pop in her shoulder before everything went black and she collapsed to the ground with her family.

3


	2. Chapter 2

"Alice?"

Alice's eyes fluttered open and she saw Cid's face above her. "What happened?" She asked, struggling to sit up.

"Just lay back. You've been out of it for a long time." He told her. "The train crashed."

"Where's dad?"

Cid's face fell. "Don't worry about that. Here, drink some water."

Alice took a sip and immediately spat it back out. "It's warm."

"Duh, there's no electricity." He said giving her another sip. "And eat this."

He tossed her half a chocolate bar, which she ate quickly. They were stuck in the tunnel for six days, according to Cid's watch, before the survivors decided to try and tunnel out. That took them another ten days and by then the food and water that they had managed to collect had run out. Unfortunately, because of no bathroom facilities and the amount of decaying bodies their living conditions were extremely unhealthy. Now people were becoming sick from a variety of illnesses and dying.

When they reached the surface, almost everyone ran off in different directions. Cid led Alice over to a burnt out rail car.

"Stay here. I'm going to go look for supplies." He told her, before running off towards some of the buildings that were still standing.

Alice sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees. Her shoulder was aching and the glare of the sun was making her head ache. She heard some rocks fall behind her and peeked her head out one of the windows. She couldn't see anything so she figured that someone had just climbed over the pile of rubble and knocked over a few stones. She sighed and turned back to the area she had been watching before and saw Cid walking towards her.

This time when she turned around at the sound of rocks she saw a dragon sitting on top of the rocks. She turned back to face her brother and knew that he hadn't seen the dragon. "No! Cid, turn around, go back!" She screamed to her brother.

Cid looked up and saw the dragon perched on the rocks. The dragon noticed Cid at the same time and let out a piercing roar. Instead of turning around to run for shelter, Cid began to run towards the burnt out train car. Alice could hear the whoosh of the dragon's wings as it flew past her.

"Alice! Get down!" Cid yelled at her.

Alice watched in horror as the dragon swooped down and grabbed her brother's body. "Cid!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face.

The dragon flew back over the car, its tail hitting the building beside her, knocking debris down all around her. She waited until it was quite before she started moving pieces of rubble away to get out. She pushed her way through the last little bit of debris. She choked on some of the dust that was still lingering in the air. She crawled down to the ground, her shoulder in even more pain, and collapsed.

"Hello!"

She could hear the voices calling in the distance, but every time she tried to call out to them her voice caught in her throat. She saw a small metal bar laying a few feet away and crawled to it. She picked it up and walked back to the rail car. She was a little disoriented at first and missed the car with her first few swings. She finally made contact and the vibrations sent shockwaves of pain through her arm. She screamed out in pain, but continued to hit the metal, hoping it wouldn't bring the dragon back.

"Hello!" A young male voice, laced with a thick Scottish accent called again. "Quinn! I heard something up ahead by the main square!"

Alice continued to bang against the rail car until she saw two figures appear over a pile of rubble.

"Dad!" The boy with the Scottish accent called out. "Dad, there's a girl over here!"

As the two got closer to where Alice was know kneeling in pain, she realized that the two boys couldn't be much older than their early teens.

"Jesus Creedy, she's just a kid." One boy said. "How old do you think she is?"

"Ten." Alice gasped out, stumbling on a rock as she moved towards them. The boy named Creedy caught her as she fell, hurting her shoulder even more.

"Are you hurt?" Creedy asked.

"My shoulder."

By that time three other men and two women appeared beside them. "The poor dear." One of the women said crouching down to Alice.

"I think her shoulder is dislocated Dad." Creedy told a balding man who looked surprisingly like him.

"Alright Dave, step back and give her some breathing room."

Now Alice was confused, but quickly realized that Dave and Creedy were the same person when he obediently stepped away. Creedy's father knelt down, gently moving the woman aside so that he could look at Alice. He inspected her shoulder, before pushing the sleeve of her t-shirt up so that he could examine it more closely.

"Well, you're one lucky kid. You're shoulder is dislocated, so I'm going to pop it back into place. It will hurt, but trust me; it will feel a lot better when it's back in place."

Alice tried to back away from him and bumped into someone. When she looked up she saw Creedy was kneeling down to hold on to her. His father grabbed her arm gently. "Take a deep breath." Creedy whispered in her ear. She did as she was told and his father pulled as hard as he could.

She screamed in pain as a sickening pop sounded, telling them that her shoulder was back to where it was supposed to be. It was still sore, but not nearly as much as it had been, Creedy's father had been right about that much. A roar sounded in the distance, and Creedy quickly helped Alice to her feet.

"Where are we going?" She asked, as they started to move away.

"To our shelter, we need to get out of the open so that Dragon doesn't spot us." Creedy said, guiding her over piles of debris.

They approached a large building and entered the doorway. Creedy led Alice down several flights of stairs to the basement. She could smell gasoline and the hum of a generator as they climbed down more stairs. The lights around them flickered as they entered a large room filled with all kinds of supplies.

"So, is there anyone else with you?" A tall blonde woman asked.

Alice shook her head. "No. If there was, they all ran away when we got to the surface."

"The surface?" The other teenage boy asked.

Creedy's father shook his head and sat down on one of the mattresses. "Let the kid be, she's probably tired and in a little bit of shock."

The blonde woman led her over to a mattress and had her lie down. "What's your name honey?" She asked her.

"Alice Bradfield." Alice told her.

"Get some sleep Alice."

Creedy handed his father a cup of coffee and sat down beside him, looking over at Alice. "What do you think she meant by getting up to the surface?" He asked.

"I don't know. Maybe she was on one of the trains that those dragons attacked. If she was, she's damn lucky to be alive." His father said.

Alice groaned and tossed her head from side to side. "Cid." She muttered quietly before Creedy stood up and walked over to her.

He touched her cheek, which made her wake up. "You okay?"

Alice shrugged and sat up. "I guess so." She looked across the room at the other teenage boy who was eating something off a plate. "Who are all of you?"

"Well, there's my dad and I. The other guy over there is Quinn, my new best friend." Creedy said, pointing to the other teenage boy. "The older blonde woman is Starla, the brunette is Marcia, the guy with the shaved head is Heath, and the guy with the really long hair is Gordon."

"We're all stranded survivors, just like you." Quinn told her.

"What happened here? I was underground for a long time." She said. "And the city didn't look like this when I got here with my family."

"Well, England was one of the few who just blew up their cities using regular bombs and not Nukes. So we don't have to deal with any radiation." Quinn said. "Brock, Creedy's dad, found all of us and brought us here before the explosions."

"Yeah, not only did they kill the dragons, but half the population of the city too." Creedy said, sitting beside them.

Brock approached the three of them and crouched down. "We're going out to scout for survivors; I want you three to stay here."

"How long will you be?" Creedy asked.

"We'll be back by sundown." Brock told his son, giving him a hug.

The scouting party came back, hours later than they were supposed to. "Well, Alice was right." Heath said, throwing himself down on his bed. "Any survivors that were here are gone now."

"So, what do we do now?" Creedy asked.

Starla and Brock glanced at each other, their expressions grim. "Well, one thing that we noticed is that there are dragons coming in from all over. They seem to be attracted to the city. Those damn bombs didn't do anything but five them a giant feeding and breeding ground."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Quinn asked her.

"Meaning that if we want to stay alive, we need to get the hell out of this city." Brock told them.

It took them several days to get organized. The first few days were spent gathering supplies and picking out towns to go to. "We'll head north first, there's an old castle in Northumberland that could be a good place to find some shelter." Brock said.

"But Northumberland is just south-east of London, why are we going to head north?" Starla asked.

"We might have a better chance of find more people alive if we circle some of the smaller towns and cities first." Brock said. "Besides, all the dragons seem to be come from the south and the east, so we'll head away from them for the time being."

"What about supplies dad? They won't hold out that long." Creedy said.

"We'll take enough to get us to the next town, once there; we'll restock all of our supplies. It's pointless to burden ourselves with unnecessary things when we don't even know how many people we'll have by the time we reach the next city." Gordon said, seeing Brocks point.

"Exactly, now, I want everyone out collecting supplies. Quinn, Creedy, you're together, Starla, Marcia and Heath, you're together, Gordon you're with me."

Alice looked up from where she was sitting. "What about me?"

"You just stay here. I don't want to risk you getting hurt or lost right now." Brock told her.

A few days later, Alice was starting to feel extremely restless, and saw that Quinn and Creedy were leaving. She snuck out and followed them to the store that they had been trying to get into for two days. She slipped on a rock and the noise of her catching herself with a garbage can made the guys turn.

"Alice! What are you doing here?" Quinn asked as she straightened herself up.

"I was bored." She told him.

Creedy walked over and grabbed her arm, "Yeah, but dad will skin us all alive."

Alice wasn't paying attention to him though; she was looking at the small hole that the boys had created. She pulled her arm away from him and walked over to the hole, sliding through easily. The boys looked at each other and wandered over to where she had disappeared. Creedy looked in the hole but quickly pulled his head away as a first aid kit came flying at him.

"Maybe she will come in handy." Quinn said.

After that the boys took her with them everywhere they went. Since she was so much smaller than them she could squeeze into places that they couldn't and she was also really fast and crafty.

Once all of their supplies were gathered, they were delayed another few days by a rainstorm. When the rain let up, they set out and left the city without another looking back.

9


	3. Chapter 3

One Year Later:

"Brock, we need to start moving faster." Starla said. "We left London a year ago and we are no where near Northumberland."

Brock looked at Starla and forced himself not to roll his eyes. "Starla, we didn't make an exact time frame for our travels."

Alice looked up from the palm pilot she had found a few weeks earlier. "We also have no idea what the migration patterns of the dragons are. We spent one week in Wood Green, three days in Arkley, and ten months here in North Harrow."

"Stay out of this Alice." Starla snapped.

Alice glanced at Ricky, a young Irish girl they found when they first reached North Harrow. Ricky rolled her eyes and went back to the rip in her shirt that she was mending.

"Starla, Alice has a point." Quinn said. "Do you really want to go running out there somewhere, where there could be hundreds of dragons?"

Brock held up his hand to stop the debate. "We've been lucky here. We haven't seen any dragons in six months."

Starla threw her arms up in frustration. "So, you're taking the word of a fifteen year old and an eleven year old, just because they can use a few big words."

Brock didn't give her the satisfaction of an answer. Instead, he climbed to his feet and left the room. Alice and Quinn watched him until they could no longer see him, and turned their eyes back to Starla. Starla stared back at them before standing up and heading for the front door.

She passed Creedy on her way out, making the teenager have to jump out of the way, or risk bodily injury. "What was all that about?" Creedy asked, handing Quinn, Alice and Ricky their dinner.

"Starla's pissed off at your dad because we've stayed here so long." Quinn told him.

"Why shouldn't we stay here? We've got it good." Creedy said, sitting down next to Alice.

Quinn shrugged, but Alice kept staring in the direction that Starla had stormed off in. "Hey, what's up with you?" He asked, glancing at Alice.

"You don't think she's going to do something stupid, do you?" Alice asked.

"I don't know. I certainly hope not." Quinn said. "Besides, what's the worse she can do, run off and get eaten by a dragon?"

"I don't know, it could be the best thing."

"Creedy!" Ricky said as Alice choked on her soup.

Ricky thumped her on the back a few times. "Thank you." She said to her. "I can't believe that you just said that!"

Creedy grinned at her and wrapped his arm around her. "You know you were thinking it."

Alice blushed and shook her head. When Creedy and Quinn moved away to talk to Brock Ricky moved closer to her. "You like him don't you."

"Who?"

"Creedy."

"I don't know, Brock seems a little old, and I'm only 11."

"You're 12, your birthday was yesterday." Ricky said.

"Was it? Huh, imagine that, how did you know?" Alice asked.

"Calendars are a marvellous thing."

The two girls stopped talking and glanced to their left. Quinn and Creedy were standing, staring at them. "What?" Alice asked.

"I still don't understand how you two can talk like that." Quinn said, shaking his head and sitting down beside Ricky.

"It's called a conversation Quinn. You and Creedy just need to learn how to have them." Ricky teased.

Creedy shook his head and reached under a pillow. "Come on guys, kiss and make up, we've got a game to finish."

The four of them played cards until their eyes grew heavy. Since they were always sitting on their beds, they had moved them to form a small square where they always ate and played cards to help pass the time.

Alice was settling onto her bed when Brock appeared and whispered something to Creedy. When he left she continued to stare at the ceiling. She was tired, but at the same time she didn't want to sleep. The anniversary of her brother's death was only a few days and every time she closed her eyes she saw Cid being scooped up by the dragon.

She sat up and wrapped her blanket tightly around her. She pushed her back against the stone wall and began running scenes from movies that she used to watch through her head, something that she did whenever she couldn't sleep.

She was struggling to remember certain details when the room flooded with light for a brief moment. She quickly laid down when she saw Brock sit up and mutter a curse. He woke up several others and they ran up the stairs to the surface. Alice quickly crawled across the cards that they had left out to pick up in the morning and shook Creedy.

"Creedy, wake up." She said, shaking him harder. He muttered something and pushed her hand away before resuming his sleep. Alice sat back with a frustrated sigh and bit her lip. "Dave!" She shouted slapping his cheek as hard as she could.

Creedy sat up with a start and Alice had to duck in order to avoid the fist that came flying at her. "Jesus Alice, what was that for?" He exclaimed, rubbing his still stinging cheek.

Alice clamped a hand over his mouth and pointed to the window. Creedy gave her a weird look before climbing to his feet and crossing the room. He had to climb up onto a shelf to be able to look out the window.

"Oh, Christ!" He muttered, jumping off the shelf.

He pulled Alice to her feet and the two of them ran up the stairs to the door. Alice pushed it open slowly and silently, just enough so that they could see and hear what was going on. There were several jeeps parked in front of the shelter. They could make out Brock and a few other men, standing with rifles and talking to someone in the first car.

"How many are you?" A man's voice demanded.

"It's just the four of us and three more men inside." Brock told them. "We were just spending the night here before we keep moving."

"Really and why would you be moving?" The man asked.

"In case you haven't noticed this whole area is infested with dragons, we're trying to get the hell away from them." Heath said.

"They're lying!" Came a familiar voice.

"Starla! That bitch!" Alice muttered.

Creedy pulled Alice away from the door. "Come on, we need to get everyone out in case they come in here."

The two of them ran back down the stairs and quietly woke everyone up. There was a door hidden behind the large generator. It took Creedy, Quinn and three others to move it. When they reached the surface behind the house, everyone ran in different directions. Alice was suddenly flooded with memories. Creedy stopped and looked back when he noticed that Alice wasn't with them.

"Alice come on, we have to keep moving." He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along behind him.

They had run for quite a while when an explosion behind them made them all turn. Alice grabbed on to Creedy and was dragged several steps when he moved to run back towards the fire. How she managed to get one of her legs around his to make him trip, she still didn't know.

"Dad!" Creedy screamed over the roar of the flames.

"Jesus Creedy, stay down." Quinn cried, grabbing onto his friends legs, helping Alice to keep him pinned to the ground.

The roar of a dragon sounded and the large silhouette passed through the black smoke. They climbed to their feet and it took the three of them to move Creedy away from the scene. They ran until they were deep in the woods, away from the dragon and the fire. They could see the smoke still rising and the occasional burst of flame.

Alice collapsed beside Creedy, gasping for breath. Her lungs were burning from running, and her heart was racing. She glanced at Creedy and saw tears running down his face. She was surprised; she had never seen him cry before, even when he had dislocated his ankle six months earlier.

"Creedy," She said, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. "You know that Brock wouldn't have wanted you to go back and put yourself in danger."

Creedy turned and pulled Alice to him. He buried his face in her neck and let his tears flow freely. Alice looked at the other two who were respectfully looking away and rubbed his back, letting him get out his anger and frustration.

"So what do we do now?" Ricky asked after several long minutes.

"We have to keep going. Maybe some of the others will be smart enough to head for the next town." Quinn said. "I just wish that we had some maps or something."

"We'll worry about that in the morning, for now we need to get to some shelter and get some rest, or we'll never make it anywhere." Alice said.

The others nodded their agreement and they climbed to their feet. Quinn and Ricky led the way, and with one final look back at the acrid smoke, Creedy and Alice followed, Creedy leaning on Alice for support. Something that she was willing to give him for as long as he needed.


	4. Chapter 4

Wow, this chapter was a long time coming! Sorry guys, but I was having one of those moments where I hated what I wrote and re wrote this thing about 6 times, no word of a lie! Anyway, my wrist taht was broken is now well enough that I can type properly, so expect another update soon!

* * *

Alice pressed herself against the rocks and scanned the small village with her binoculars. Nothing was moving aside from the occasional animal that appeared from the tree lines.

"Anything?" Creedy's voice sounded in her ear.

Alice jumped and almost lost her binoculars. She made sure they were safe before turning and punching his arm as hard as she could in her position. "You jack ass! What did you do that for?"

Creedy giggled and rolled away from another punch. "You should have seen your face!"

Alice glared at him and turned back to what she was doing. "How someone as lanky as you can sneak up on a person is completely beyond me."

Creedy rolled his eyes and stretched. "Come on Alice, you've been up here for almost a week." He whined. "If there hasn't been any movement I think we can move down there."

Alice rolled her eyes, she despised when Creedy was right. "Fine, let's go."

It took them several hours to reach the small campsite where everyone else was. The sun had begun to set and they both knew that they would have to wait until morning before everyone could be moved into the small village.

"Well anything is better than this." Quinn muttered when they discussed their options for the next morning.

"There are almost thirty people with us now Quinn." Ricky pointed out, "We might have to separate everyone, and that could be dangerous for everyone if a dragon comes along."

"Well there is a building there that looks like it might have been an inn or something." Alice said. "It should have plenty of room for everyone."

Quinn sighed. "I have to admit that after 7 years it would be nice to find a place to settle down for more than a week."

They finally agreed that at first light they would wake everyone up and would move as a community down to the village. They held a quick meeting and planned out a way to bury anyone who might have died and to clean up the small village for anyone who might come along after them.

Three Months Later….

Alice looked around the small entrance way before opening the door and stepping out into the sunlight. Creedy had seen her open the door and he followed Alice outside. "Where are you going?"

Alice rolled her eyes and stopped walking. "I have to pee, Creedy. Is that alright or do I need to get a note?"

Creedy crossed his arms over his chest. "You know the rules, no one is supposed to go anywhere alone. Besides, we have a working bathroom."

"Yeah, that Jacob has been in for the past twenty minutes, and my bladder can't wait anymore." She turned to walk away, but Creedy grabbed her arm. "Look, there's a house with working plumbing six doors down. Come with me if it will make you feel better, but I'm going."

Creedy sighed and scanned the sky. "Fine, let's go."

They hopped over the railing and moved quickly to the house. "By the way, there's a woman dead in there that Ricky and I couldn't get out. So the house smells kind of bad." Alice said, covering her face with the bandanna she was wearing around her neck.

Creedy stepped into the house and gagged as the smell of decay flooded his nostrils. Alice turned back when she heard him coughing and pulled the bandanna she was wearing over her hair off and handed it to him. "Thanks." Creedy said, covering his nose and mouth.

They made their way slowly up the rickety stairs and Alice walked into a room, closing the door behind her. "What month do you figure it is, Creedy?" She called through the door.

"Oh, I don't know. June, maybe July. Why do you ask?"

"My birthday is July 28th." She told him. "I was doing really well at keeping the days straight at first after I found that Palm Pilot, but once the batteries died, I lost track really quickly. They got lost, just like everything else."

Creedy heard the toilet flush and could hear pipes groaning somewhere below him. "I guess you could make any day July 28th now." Creedy said when she opened the door. He watched her stare at her reflection for a few minutes and moved in behind her. He stared into the mirror at his own reflection. Neither one of them really recognized themselves anymore.

Alice had matured into a beautiful young woman. And although they didn't get to shower as often as they would have liked, her red hair was shiny and healthy. Creedy's own brown hair was long and curly and his face was covered with a beard.

"I think when the snow falls, I'm going to keep track of the moon. At least the lunar cycles never change." Alice said, still staring at their reflections.

"Do you think I should shave this off?" Creedy asked suddenly.

Alice laughed and gave him a funny look. "Yeah, you and Quinn are starting to look too much alike."

"What about the hair?"

Alice stared at him silently for a few minutes. "No, leave the hair."

Creedy put his hand on her shoulder and guided her out of the bathroom. "So, how did you know about this place?"

"Remember when we were first looking for supplies?" Creedy nodded. "Well Ricky and I were assigned this house. We found the dead woman, she had only been dead a few days, but she was caught underneath a ton of debris that we couldn't move without the rest of the house coming down on us. So we couldn't bury her like we did the others.

"When we made our second trip back here to look for cloth to make clothes out of Ricky wasn't feeling too good and she wound up in the bathroom while I searched the place. Out of habit she tried to flush the toilet; shocked the hell out of both of us when we found out the plumbing still worked."

Creedy grinned as they reached the main floor. "Well, it's good to know that if anyone else needs some privacy they can come here. Provided the smell doesn't kill them first."

They stepped outside and they pulled the bandannas off their faces. "To tell you the truth the smell doesn't really bother me anymore."

Creedy glanced at her in surprise. "Why not?"

"When you guys first found me, I had just tunnelled my way out of the Underground. Down there, nothing you did made the smell of the bodies go away. It was something that we learned to deal with as more people died around us." Alice said, sounding older than her nineteen years.

"So that explains why you smelt so bad."

Alice's jaw dropped and she shoved Creedy. "You know, you didn't smell like a garden of roses either. Come to thing of it, you still kind of smell."

Creedy's eyebrows twitched in amusement and he pulled Alice into a headlock before she could run away from him. Alice laughed and pretended to gag as he pulled her along back to the compound they lived in. He looked down at her when he heard her gasp and saw that her eyes were wide and she was staring at the sky. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the shape of a dragon growing larger as it drew closer to the village.

"Shit!" He grabbed Alice's hand and tried to pull her along, but she dug her heels in. "Alice what are you doing? We need to get back!"

Alice shook her head. "If it sees us, then we put every single person in that house in danger!"

"So what do you suggest? Sit here and let him make an aperitif out of us!"

Alice looked up when she heard the dragon roar. "No, we should run. Now!"

She grabbed his arm and ran with him back to the house they had left only moments earlier. Something wet hit the back of her neck, but she didn't dare check to see what it was. The dove through the door as the dragon circled above them.

Alice pulled off her jacket and wiped at the sticky substance on her neck. Creedy was staring out the window across from where she was crouched, staring at the sky. "I don't get it, why isn't the damn thing spraying the place with fire?"

Alice stared at the shimmering substance that now covered her jacket. "Maybe it can't."

"What?"

Alice thought for a minute. "That Bio-Chemist that we picked up a few months back; didn't he have a theory about their glands? Something about it had two chemicals in its neck that when mixed on contact created the flame?" Creedy nodded. "Quick, find me some matches or a lighter."

Creedy reached into his pocket and pulled a Zippo from it. Alice tossed her jacket into the fire place and lit the lighter. She shook it a few times making the flame grow more than triple its size. As soon as the flame touched the jacket, it was engulfed quickly.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she grabbed a poker and pulled the flaming jacket from the stone fireplace.

"Where's the dragon?"

Creedy turned back to the window and stared up at the sky. "The bastard's still circling around above us."

Alice carefully manuvered through the room and out the door, she moved as quickly as she could and placed what was left of her jacket in the middle of the street. She didn't have to hear Creedy's shouts to know that the dragon was coming. She ran back for the house as hard as she could and slid next to him.

"Would you mind explaining to me what the hell that was all about?" Creedy asked her.

"Look at those flames, those are Nitro flames Creedy. The dragon spat that at me. It can't breathe fire." She told him. The dragon landed in the street, sniffing the smouldering cloth before licking it. "The bastard's hungry."

"And it's missing an eye." Creedy muttered. "That half of its face and a good chunk of its neck are gone."

"That means it's missing a secretion gland." Alice muttered.

The dragon turned in their direction and with a roar it swung its tail towards the front of the house. Creedy pulled her under him and covered her body as the muscular tail smashed through the windows. Alice bit back a scream and pulled her body closer to Creedy's as another roar came out of the dragon's mouth.

They stayed like that for several tense minutes, listening to the sudden silence. "Creedy! Alice!" They heard Quinn's voice.

Creedy pulled up from her slightly. There was blood on his forehead where a piece of glass had embedded its self in his skin. Alice and Creedy stared at each other quietly, their faces mere inches apart, before Creedy pulled away from her completely.

He stood and helped her to her feet and they stared at the carcass in front of them. Quinn and the others had used some of the weapons they found along the way and someone had gotten off a lucky shot in the dragons eye with a high powered rifle. The bullet had been going fast enough to embed its self in the dragon's brain, killing it.

"Are you alright?" Ricky asked, hugging Alice tightly.

Alice stared at Creedy, a mixture of amazement and adoration on her face. "Yeah Ricky, I'm fine."


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Okay, so I was starting to get impatient with the time frame of the story...hahaha...I'm impatient with my own story...that's bad. So this chapter has a major time gap, which is only because in my mind, they're doing the same thing, moving from place to place, letting the dragons move into London before they reach the castle, which by the way will be in the next chapter.

As always...R and R, because it keeps me going! I shouldn't take too long with the next chapter, I'm done exams and I'm at home sick, so I have nothing else to do with my time but write.

* * *

They moved not long after the dragon appeared. Alice was disappointed; all her hard work scouting that village was gone down the drain. Since then, almost seven years ago, Quinn wouldn't allow her to go scouting on her own. Nothing annoyed her more than having to take Creedy with her every where she went. She began to feel as if Quinn felt he couldn't trust her judgement when he himself had them stay in a village near a dragons cave.

She eventually got over it as they continued to move from place to place. She and Quinn even became an item after awhile. It felt good to have a body to relax into at night, but quite often Alice found herself picturing someone else other than Quinn. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't turn a blind eye to her attraction to Creedy. She tried to convince herself that she was only attracted to him because he had saved her life a few times.

"But Quinn's done it too." She muttered staring up at the roof of the tent that she and Quinn shared with Creedy and Ricky.

"What?" Quinn muttered sleepily, pulling her closer to his body.

Alice looked over her shoulder at him and shook her head. "Nothing."

She pulled away from Quinn and climbed out of her sleeping bag. As she left the tent Quinn fell back to sleep, figuring that she was just going to relieve the call of nature. Creedy waited until he heard his friend's breathing even out and deepen before he undid his own sleeping bag.

"And where are you off too?" Ricky's voice folded itself around his ears in the dark.

Creedy looked over at her and he could tell that she had a smile on her face. She knew damn well where he was going. "What I have to clear it with you before I go to take a piss?" He snapped, hating that she knew he was going to find Alice.

"No, but you should know that if she's gone to think, she'll be at the lake." Ricky said, settling herself back onto her pillow.

Creedy's jaw dropped. He knew that Ricky wanted Alice to pull her head out of her ass and realize the attraction that she had for Creedy, but he didn't think that she would encourage a late night rendezvous. Creedy left the tent and did as Ricky told him to; he went down to the lake.

Sure enough, Alice was sitting on a rock, her face hidden behind the veil of her hair. She was lost in thought staring at the water. "You shouldn't come out here alone."

Alice rolled her eyes. She hated when Creedy followed her and said that. She always felt like she was doing something wrong. Then again, most of the time when he said that she was always glad that he was there. She sighed and raised her head to glare at him.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded.

"I was on my way back from taking a piss and I saw you here." Creedy said.

Alice rolled her eyes and moved away from him as he sat down beside her. "You have such a way with words Creedy, it's amazing how women aren't falling at your feet."

Creedy laughed and leaned back on his elbows. "It doesn't matter if they did anyway, none of them would be the one that I want."

Alice looked at him curiously. Even in the moonlight she could see that his eyes were closed and she knew that he was mentally cursing himself for saying that. "Not the one you want huh?" She said, knowing exactly what he meant.

The two of them sat on the rock that suddenly seemed far too small for the two of them to be sharing. The tension between them was so thick they were surprised that they couldn't see its aura.

Alice jumped when she felt his fingers entwine with hers and she quickly pulled her hand away from his as if his touch burned her. "What are you really doing here Creedy?"

Creedy sighed and sat up. "I'm here because I want to be with you." He told her. "Why are you with Quinn?"

Alice's jaw dropped and she tried to pretend that his question insulted her. "I'm with Quinn because I want to be."

Creedy looked at her, his head cocking to one side. She knew that he didn't believe her. "So answer me one thing. If you're with Quinn because you want to be, then why are you sitting here trying to convince both of us that you want to be? Why aren't you walking away insulted like you're pretending to be?"

Alice opened her mouth to say something, but the words left her. She knew that he was right. If she had really been insulted she probably would have hit him, or at least walked away in anger. She raised her left hand to her mouth and began to chew on her nails, a nervous habit that she had picked up over the years.

Her eyes fluttered shut when Creedy's hand ran up her neck to her jaw, turning her face to his. The feeling of his hand on her skin set her body on fire and she found herself craving more of it. He leaned in slowly and pressed his lips against hers.

Alice gasped, giving Creedy the opportunity to deepen the kiss. One thing they were both thankful for was the seemingly never ending supply of toothpaste and toothbrushes that they brought with them. They may not have been able to bathe as much as they liked, but all of them went out of their way to make sure that they were healthy.

Alice groaned and wrapped her arms around Creedy, pulling him closer to her. Creedy shifted and lifted Alice over his body, sitting her on his lap. He pulled away from her and pushed her hair away from her face before leaning in to kiss her again.

This was the kiss that Alice had been craving; a passionate, needy kiss that set her body on fire. No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, she would never experience anything like this with Quinn.

The image of Quinn's face popped into her mind, extinguishing the flames of passion like a bucket of icy water. She pushed herself away from Creedy. "No, I can't do this."

Creedy stared at her, not believing that she was pushing away from him. "What? Why not?"

"Because of Quinn." She told him. "I can't sit here and be with you when I'm supposed to be with Quinn."

Creedy ran a frustrated hand over his face. He knew that she was right. Quinn was his best friend and here he was trying to get with his woman. Creedy nodded and helped Alice slide down to the ground, watching her walk away from him he found that he needed to ask her something.

"Alice?"

Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of her name passing over his lips. "Yes, Creedy?"

"If you weren't with Quinn, would you have stayed here with me?" He asked her.

Alice turned back to him and he could have sworn he saw tears shimmering in her eyes. "Creedy, if I weren't with Quinn, we wouldn't have even had to be here."


End file.
